Case report, psychotherapeutic procedure with a breast cancer patient

The aim of this case report is to emphasize the importance of psychotherapeutic procedure in treatment of cancer patients. This patient sought psychotherapeutic help for headache. Two months later her husband suffered a heart attack and joined a family therapy. After six months, the patient was diagnosed with malignant breast cancer. The oncologist prescribed only chemotherapy. However, at the same time, the patient started individual psychotherapy. Hypnotic trance as well as problem visualization was used during psychotherapy.Cilj ovog izvješća o slučaju je naglasiti važnost psihoterapijskog postupka u liječenju bolesnika s karcinomom. Ova je pacijentica potražila psihoterapijsku pomoć zbog glavobolja. Dva mjeseca kasnije, njezin suprug je pretrpio srčani udar i uključio se u obiteljsku terapiju. Nakon šest mjeseci, pacijentici je dijagnosticiran maligni karcinom dojke. Onkolog je propisao samo kemoterapiju. Međutim, pacijentica je istodobno započela individualnu psihoterapiju. Tijekom psihoterapije, koristi se hipnoterapija te hipnotički trans kao i metoda vizualizacije problema

Značajke osobnosti alkoholičara počinitelja i nepočinitelja kaznenih djela

The research was based on some personality traits of alcoholics such as specific ego qualities, special qualities of psychopathological and sociopathological characteristics of alcoholic offenders according to the type of criminal offence and non-offenders. The research was carried out in prison and hospital system during 2002/2003 in Popovača. Two groups of examinees were included. The experimental group (E) (N=96) included the persons convicted for homicide (N1=32), traffic offences (N2=32) and offences against property (N3=32). The control group (K) (N4=64) included the alcoholics undergoing hospital treatment at the Alcoholism Department of Neuropsychiatric hospital “Dr. Ivan Barbot” in Popovača. The research results indicated that the homicide offenders exhibited lower ego during the latent phase and all together stronger ego than non-offenders. There were no evident differences in the examined psychopathological variables among alcoholic offenders except that the offenders against property displayed more aggression than the homicide offenders. Among criminal offenders, the alcoholics exhibited most sociopathological characteristics and the traffic offenders and offenders against property the least. The criminal offenders exhibited more sociopathological characteristics than alcoholic non-offenders. The homicide and traffic offenders and non-offenders differed the most in the family problem variable – the alcoholics in their current families

Domestic Homicide Cases Related to Schizophrenic Offenders

The goal of this study was identification of highly specific patterns of schizophrenia related domestic homicides by comparing schizophrenic homicide offenders with related domestic homicide group of offenders diagnosed with other psychiatric disorders. This study was based on the comparison of schizophrenic homicide group and other homicide group of offenders on the basis of differences in psychosocial and sociodemographic patterns and the modality of crime. The survey was conducted on mentally insane domestic homicide offenders diagnosed with schizophrenia (n=44) and second group of mentally insane offenders diagnosed with other psychiatric diagnosis (n=43). All offenders were admitted to Department of Forensic Psychiatry (Neuropsychiatric Hospital »Dr. Ivan Barbot«, Popovaca, Croatia) for psychiatric evaluation. They have undergone psychological testing and psychiatric evaluation in order to make forensic expert analyses of each case particularly. This study showed some specific characteristics in the cases of schizophrenic offenders; they are more often commit parricides and siblicides, the victims are often males with their own physical strength. Furthermore, schizophrenic offenders were indifferent upon killing their victim; they were less often provoked by a victim itself and were sober tempore criminis. Moreover, in the same homicide group we found young, single offenders with high school education, average intelligence and with positive psychiatric heredity. Finally, in the same group of offenders we have found no history of military serving, less social developmental disruptions, less history of drug and alcohol abuse during adolescence and adult age

Neuroimaging Techniques in Modern Forensic Psychiatry

Applied neuroscientific knowledge such as brain neuroimaging has widespread application in the medical diagnostic and treatment areas. Neuroscientific progress such as cognitive neuroscience has strong implications in specific medical fields such as forensic psychiatry. Significant progress in forensic psychiatry has affected the practice of law, in which an understanding of the complex relationship among mind, brain, and behavior is becoming necessary. Forensic psychiatry is concerned with the relationship between psychiatric abnormalities and legal violations and crimes. Due to the lack of available biological criteria, assessment, evaluation and therapy in forensic psychiatry have so far been restricted to psychosocial and mental criteria of offender personality. Recent advances in nuclear radiology such as brain imaging techniques (fMRI, DT-MRI, PET, SPECT) allow a closer approach to the neural correlates of personality, moral judgments and decision-making. Introduction of neurobiological criteria (based on advanced neuroimaging techniques) in the field of forensic psychiatry and establishing the rules to what extent such biological criteria will be more reliable choice in evaluating mentally ill offenders would be of fundamental value in the modern forensic psychiatry. Psychosocial and subjective criteria in forensic evaluation will be more accomplished by biopsychosocial and objective criteria. Advances in the neuroimaging techniques bring specificity to the problems underlying the application of neuroscience to criminal law

Criminal Offences of Neglect and Abuse of Children and Minors in Practice of the Municipal Court in Rijeka

U raduje istraživana praksa Općinskog suda u Rijeci, kroz četiri godine, od 2003. do 2006. godine. Istraživanje je obuhvatilo sve pravomoćne presude u tom razdoblju za kazneno djelo zapuštanja i zlostavljanja djece ili maloljetne osobe (čl. 213. KZ-a\u27). Dobiven je ukupni broj počinitelja i neke karakteristike počinitelja, te ukupan broj žrtava, njihova dob i spol. Obrađivani podaci obuhvatili su neke karakteristike visine izrečenih kazni, izdvojena su kaznena djela počinjena u stjecaju i ona počinjena u sudioništvu. Rezultati provedenog istraživanja ukazuju na porast broja počinjenih kaznenih djela (opisan u čl. 213. KZ-a), presuda, počinitelja i žrtava što nam govori o ozbiljnosti problema i potrebi za sinergijskim djelovanjem u rješavanju problema.This paper focuses on the research of court reports of the Municipal court in Rijeka in time period from 2003 to 2006. The research covers ali validjudgements issued in the given period concerning offences of neglecting and abusing children or under-aged persons. We have obtained the total number of perpetrators, certain characteristics of perpetrators, total number of victims and the victims\u27 age and sex. The processed data included common characteristics of the set penalties while the offences made coincidentallv and those committed together with an accomplice have been put aside. This paper points to the increase in the number of judgements concerning child abuse as well as perpetrators and victims which shows the graveness of this issue and calls for joint action which is needed to resolve it

Neuroimaging Techniques in Modern Forensic Psychiatry

Applied neuroscientific knowledge such as brain neuroimaging has widespread application in the medical diagnostic and treatment areas. Neuroscientific progress such as cognitive neuroscience has strong implications in specific medical fields such as forensic psychiatry. Significant progress in forensic psychiatry has affected the practice of law, in which an understanding of the complex relationship among mind, brain, and behavior is becoming necessary. Forensic psychiatry is concerned with the relationship between psychiatric abnormalities and legal violations and crimes. Due to the lack of available biological criteria, assessment, evaluation and therapy in forensic psychiatry have so far been restricted to psychosocial and mental criteria of offender personality. Recent advances in nuclear radiology such as brain imaging techniques (fMRI, DT-MRI, PET, SPECT) allow a closer approach to the neural correlates of personality, moral judgments and decision-making. Introduction of neurobiological criteria (based on advanced neuroimaging techniques) in the field of forensic psychiatry and establishing the rules to what extent such biological criteria will be more reliable choice in evaluating mentally ill offenders would be of fundamental value in the modern forensic psychiatry. Psychosocial and subjective criteria in forensic evaluation will be more accomplished by biopsychosocial and objective criteria. Advances in the neuroimaging techniques bring specificity to the problems underlying the application of neuroscience to criminal law

What Associates Charles Bonnet Syndrome with Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is a condition related to patients with visual loss due to age related macular degeneration or glaucoma that are having complex visual hallucinations. The CBS was first described by Swiss physician Charles Bonnet in 1760. Affected patients, who are otherwise mentally healthy people with significant visual loss, have vivid, complex recurrent visual hallucinations (VHs). One characteristic of these hallucinations is that they usually are »Lilliputian hallucinations« as patients experience micropsia (hallucinations in which the characters or objects are distorted and much smaller than normal). The prevalence of Charles Bonnet Syndrome has been reported to be between 10% and 40%; a recent Australian study has found the prevalence to be 17.5%. The high incidence of non-reported CBS is thought to be as a result of patient’s fear to report the symptoms as they could be labeled as mentally insane since those type of visual hallucinations could be found in variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders such as drug or alcohol abuse (delirium tremens), Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), psychosis, schizophrenia, dementia, narcolepsy, epilepsy, Parkinson disease, brain tumors, migraine, as well as, in long term sleep deprivation. VHs can also be presented as the initial sign of the Epstein-Barr virus infection in infectious mononucleosis. Patients who suffer from CBS usually possess insight into the unreality of their visual experiences, which are commonly pleasant but may sometimes cause distress. The hallucinations consist of well-defined, organized, and clear images over which the subject has little control. It is believed that they represent release phenomena due to deafferentiation of the visual association areas of the cerebral cortex, leading to a form of phantom vision. Cognitive defects, social isolation, and sensory deprivation have also been implicated in the etiology of this condition. This study was conducted on 350 patients diagnosed with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and shows incidence of CBS in 13% of patients with AMD. Furthermore, we have found higher incidence of CBS in patients with massive loss of vision in peripheral visual field which is not age related